Carrie Bartz, age 11, of Benton Harbor, Mich., for her question;

What kind of bird is the condor?

The condor is the largest of all living flying birds. And he may be the largest and the heaviest bird ever to take to the air. He looks down on the world from lofty mountains, and some people look down their noses at him. For the mighty bird is one of mother nature's garbage collectors.

The great condor is a vulture who feeds mostly on carrion and corpses, on dead and often decaying meat. He ls seldom seen for he is a very rare bird and makes his home among the lonely peaks of lofty mountains. The South American condor lives in the Andes, maybe two or three miles above sea level. The California condor and his few kinsfolk look down on the world from the rugged peaks of Los Padres National Park.

There he is protected, we hope, from extinction. In the past he was trapped and shot for the stiff black feathers of his tail and wings, and in l953 only 60 condors were left in all of California. As a rule, the parent birds produce only one egg each season, and their gawky chick is very slow at growing up to cope with life on his own.

The adult bird is bald headed, and the baggy skin of his head and neck are either red or vivid orange. His gleaming plumage is black with touches of white under the wings. He stands on white feet, and his legs are feathered right down to his ankles. He has a hooked beak which is long and sharp and black eyes keen enough to survey the ground from a soaring height of 20,000 feet.

But his most remarkable feature is his size. The California condor may be 55 inches long and tip the scales at 25 pounds. His magnificent wings may spread to ll feet, and without doubt he is the largest flying bird of north america. The condor of the andes is slightly  larger and is the largest flying bird in the world.

Most vultures devour only carrion, for their feet are too weak to carry off live and struggling prey. The condor, however, can carry off a living lamb or calf. He may devour dead porpoises on the beaches and other corpses from the land. He also is a bird of prey which carries off live victims like a mighty eagle.

People who know no better tend to look down upon the vultures because they eat carrion. But our world would be a messy, smelly place without them. The condor and his vulture kinsfolk survey the wide outdoors from soaring heights and pounce down to devour every scrap of rotting meat. They are the garbage men who help keep the ground and the breezes sweet and clean.